I think the jewelry was probably the hardest part for me in this whole project. I know the embroidery took ages and there were many challenges but I felt I managed to conquer them. With jewelry, I am not sure.
Anyway. I started looking at the jewelry from the start of the project and it was always constantly happening in the background. The first step was dealing with the coins. The costume has really nice set of coins in different elements. My original plan was to find one nice coin and use it as a master for molding. I ended up finding antique bracelet of coins so I used that instead of making the coins myself. (The coins actually came from correct region. The were slightly newer than Amira's time, the first half of 20th century.. )
The first piece of jewelry I did, was the red necklace. The main challenge was figuring out the size of the red pearls and find the right color. Using wood pearls came from my research. My first idea was that they were probably metal. Then I read that metal was common in jewelry but not in big elements. Then I found an article that was taking about wooden elements and I think it made sense. So, I tried to figure out the diameter for the pearls and then I found French online store that had right diameter. I had no idea how many of them I need, so in the end I got twice the numbers. Happens.
Anyway the necklace itself was very simple - color the pearls, put them in a wire with coins and add closing at the back. Most modern day jewelry use those clips? I am not sure how they are call. Again, nothing like that existed back then as the jewelry was also "simple" as patterns in the area (when I say simple, then the construction. The details were breathtaking). So, I found this round closure thing that worked nice.
Anyway.. This was the first jewelry I did, I think on the same time I was working on the blouse. So quite early. Then, I was off to earrings and the locket in the other necklace. First it was figuring out the shapes. The common problem - they never look the same in manga. So, this was probably the step I went with the front cover and tried to copy them from there. Then I made the design in Photoshop and printed it out in many sizes to find right propositions.
It was easier with earrings but little trickier with the locker. In the end I had my "choices" and then came the modeling - clay! Again, haven't used clay for ages and it was harder than I thought. I think I came out with nice options, then I backed them and molded but getting the new versions of of mold and keeping them in desired shape was not easy. Some masters were done using termoplast. I had this weird little bag of very small pieces of termoplast that could be heated and then modeled. The problem was that when they were heated, they stuck to everything and they cooled down very quickly.
I think I played around with those pieces of jewelry for months. Just trying to figure out how to get nice shapes.
The locker was trickiest. I managed to see real historical locker (I am not sure if it actually the right name to call this central piece but I think I saw it somewhere called like that) in a museum of Islamic art in one of my work trips (the good part of traveling lot due to work - going to museums. Honestly. After I started this project, whenever I was somewhere, I googled around to any museum in the area that could have something from similar time and region on display. Sometimes it was museum on something else but they had small display on right kind of items. So, I saw some national costumes in museum in Athens. And jewelry also in Islamic museum in Athens. Shoes and boots in Budapest. Some more clothing and jewelry in Italy. Something in UK. I mean.. thanks to museums a lot of stuff has been moved around the world and I did not had to go to right region to see things. I think the clothing museum in Athens was very eye opening (the same way the shoes exhibition in Budapest). It cured me from my misinformation that ribbons could be used on clothing. Yes, in Ottoman Empire but not in Central Asia and in woman costumes) and it (locker) was hollow from inside. That makes sense and metals were expensive and you would not want to spend much on the jewelry for girls. Also, the weight! I knew from the beginning I will not be able to make it hollow. Also, I found from my research that the jewelry making technology in the region was different from europe. So you cannot see this kind of clear smooth surfaces as in jewelry in europe as they used "cold processing". It means things were worked after they had cooled down making the surface "scratchy"/"uneven". (I am very thankful for that as I would have never managed to make it as smooth as it should have been).
The first locker was done with mold of half. I used my printed guideline and modeled the one half. I made the side pieces separately and also modeled the "stone holders".
Then some molding and baking and the first result:
To say slightly, it was not what I expected. It was something but.. much less than I expected. It wasn't round as putting the two halfs together was hard.
So, I did my second try. I made round "base" from clay and added details with worbla. Never used worbla before. I always wanted to attend worbla workshop in Animatsuri but never made it was the one time it was ran and I was attending, it was on Saturday. I only managed to arrive on Sunday as I was flying back from a conference and when I got to Tartu, it was Saturday very late :( I was waiting for the workshop this year but it did not took place. I think I have lot to learn from that material.
It was slightly better but I was not totally happy either. So I made a third try but it was worse than second, so the second remained. Priming, coloring.. the rest. I had the locker.
The stones. I used craft pieces that were in totally wrong color. The ovals were white and the circles where.. weird red. So, I painted them using class colors. They are actually meant for class and you need to "cook" them but I could not do that as I had plastic bases. But they were fine. They add this kind of "membrane" over the base so painting them on paper (using newspaper as a surface cover) was not the best option as getting them off was hard but using kitchen film? (that transparent thing you can cover things.. some people also like to wind themselves into it to make patterns with tape?) it was quite easy to remove those stones.
I was painted them quite flat (covered everything with red) but then I realized that they should have some dimension so I repainted most of them and after Animatsuri, when I redo some aspects of the jewelry, I redid most of the stones also, covering them with stones where highlights and shadows were painted to the stones.
Rest of the pearls. I used pearls from shops. I ordered tons of different shapes, went over the manga, trying to find what kind of shapes were used. I needed to make one of those pieces myself as it was clearly visible and I couldn't find suitable pre-made pearl. In the end, I just looked how the jewelry looks on the main image and tried to copy it with pre-made pearls sprayed silver.
The earrings took few tries too. Figuring out how to handle different materials. First I tried air-drying clay on pvc. Clay cracked and did not stick to pvc. Then I used pvc and worbla for master. Better.
Then the paint. I actually broke one of the earrings while sanding :S They clay was not as strong as I expected and therefore I had to put some horrible "strengthening" clay at the back to fix that one and I was not able to sand was much as I would have loved.
The major problem I had with earrings was that they were heavy. They felt light but as I do not have holes in my ears, I had to use clips and they just tended to drop off over time. I actually planned to clue them to my ears during the competition but did not. And I lost an earring during the stage show :P They were fine all the other time. I managed to catch it so it was hardly noticed but yeah.. having holes has advantages but I wasn't going to do it just for this costume :P
The bracelets. PVC with worbla.
Took some time to figure out how to with it. I also learned that using graphic knives works very well with pvc. The material is soft enough for the knives to handle. So, all the small details were added with knives.
And then random beer bottle ended up being the "base" for heating.
So.. in the end, I think they are "something" but not as neat as I would have loved. I feel I just do not have the skill for worbla :(
After animatsuri and before eurocosplay, I decided to redo the jewelry. At least part of it. I kept three of the bracelets and redid the second one from the bottom that I felt was the weakest. I also got a really good hint about glading wax for better silver effect from one of the judges. So I got the wax and tried to work with it :S It was a mess. I ruined some of my stones.. I did got slightly better shine than before but not what I hoped for. I think the problem was that I did not had so "smooth" surfaces". Also, I felt after covering the jewelry with gloss or sealing wax, the shine actually dropped. Without it, I could not have left it as it was "leaving silver marks" on everything. My hands were more silverish I think than the poor jewelry, I think.
So.. I think the jewellry was now slightly better than before. I was very happy with the new bracelet despite it giving me so much trouble. The last one was built on pvc base and then worbla was used to add the dimension. Now I build it from two layer of pvc but I had some trouble cluing them together. And i the end, it was allright.. until the evening before flying to eurocosplay.. I was practicing my stage show with real bow (as the costume was was packed.. and I actually own a long bow..).. and I was just readying the bow for shooting the eagle.. and I felt I did something wrong as my arm started to hurt.. When I let the string go, I had gazed my hand.. I had some blood as the real bow has a lot of strength (and I mean, I have actually very weak bow, in average standards..) and when I looked on my wrist I saw that the bracelet was broken.. I was shocked.. I had to actually look around in the room to find where the piece had fallen.. Damn..
So.. I should be sleeping but.. I just used some superclew and that granul termoplast inside to fix it..I wore this when I met judges but I planned to use the old (not so nice) one on stage.. in the end, I dropped two bracelets on stage as two were enough trouble to handle around on stage :P
In the end, I think they came out alright but I do feel there is lot of room to improve for me.
And did I mention how I lost earring on stage on local qualifier? Mm.. I never lost in anywhere else.. expect when I was on stage in Eurocosplay.. during my performance.. and.. when I went on stage to get my price.. like.. it was a curse.. One of them only dropped off on stage :P
Posts:
*Getting started
*Underwear
*Skirt and trousers
*Blouse
*Coat
*Jewelry
*Boots
*Accessories
*At Animatsuri
*At Eurocosplay
Anyway. I started looking at the jewelry from the start of the project and it was always constantly happening in the background. The first step was dealing with the coins. The costume has really nice set of coins in different elements. My original plan was to find one nice coin and use it as a master for molding. I ended up finding antique bracelet of coins so I used that instead of making the coins myself. (The coins actually came from correct region. The were slightly newer than Amira's time, the first half of 20th century.. )
The first piece of jewelry I did, was the red necklace. The main challenge was figuring out the size of the red pearls and find the right color. Using wood pearls came from my research. My first idea was that they were probably metal. Then I read that metal was common in jewelry but not in big elements. Then I found an article that was taking about wooden elements and I think it made sense. So, I tried to figure out the diameter for the pearls and then I found French online store that had right diameter. I had no idea how many of them I need, so in the end I got twice the numbers. Happens.
Anyway the necklace itself was very simple - color the pearls, put them in a wire with coins and add closing at the back. Most modern day jewelry use those clips? I am not sure how they are call. Again, nothing like that existed back then as the jewelry was also "simple" as patterns in the area (when I say simple, then the construction. The details were breathtaking). So, I found this round closure thing that worked nice.
 |
| Somehow I never took a picture of this part of the jewelry while making. This was done much later when I was afraid that I will ran out of coins and was molding them. |
 |
| Here is a better image of me actually wearing it |
I think I played around with those pieces of jewelry for months. Just trying to figure out how to get nice shapes.
The locker was trickiest. I managed to see real historical locker (I am not sure if it actually the right name to call this central piece but I think I saw it somewhere called like that) in a museum of Islamic art in one of my work trips (the good part of traveling lot due to work - going to museums. Honestly. After I started this project, whenever I was somewhere, I googled around to any museum in the area that could have something from similar time and region on display. Sometimes it was museum on something else but they had small display on right kind of items. So, I saw some national costumes in museum in Athens. And jewelry also in Islamic museum in Athens. Shoes and boots in Budapest. Some more clothing and jewelry in Italy. Something in UK. I mean.. thanks to museums a lot of stuff has been moved around the world and I did not had to go to right region to see things. I think the clothing museum in Athens was very eye opening (the same way the shoes exhibition in Budapest). It cured me from my misinformation that ribbons could be used on clothing. Yes, in Ottoman Empire but not in Central Asia and in woman costumes) and it (locker) was hollow from inside. That makes sense and metals were expensive and you would not want to spend much on the jewelry for girls. Also, the weight! I knew from the beginning I will not be able to make it hollow. Also, I found from my research that the jewelry making technology in the region was different from europe. So you cannot see this kind of clear smooth surfaces as in jewelry in europe as they used "cold processing". It means things were worked after they had cooled down making the surface "scratchy"/"uneven". (I am very thankful for that as I would have never managed to make it as smooth as it should have been).
The first locker was done with mold of half. I used my printed guideline and modeled the one half. I made the side pieces separately and also modeled the "stone holders".
So, I did my second try. I made round "base" from clay and added details with worbla. Never used worbla before. I always wanted to attend worbla workshop in Animatsuri but never made it was the one time it was ran and I was attending, it was on Saturday. I only managed to arrive on Sunday as I was flying back from a conference and when I got to Tartu, it was Saturday very late :( I was waiting for the workshop this year but it did not took place. I think I have lot to learn from that material.
The stones. I used craft pieces that were in totally wrong color. The ovals were white and the circles where.. weird red. So, I painted them using class colors. They are actually meant for class and you need to "cook" them but I could not do that as I had plastic bases. But they were fine. They add this kind of "membrane" over the base so painting them on paper (using newspaper as a surface cover) was not the best option as getting them off was hard but using kitchen film? (that transparent thing you can cover things.. some people also like to wind themselves into it to make patterns with tape?) it was quite easy to remove those stones.
 |
| this was not the smart thing to do |
 |
| This as better |
Rest of the pearls. I used pearls from shops. I ordered tons of different shapes, went over the manga, trying to find what kind of shapes were used. I needed to make one of those pieces myself as it was clearly visible and I couldn't find suitable pre-made pearl. In the end, I just looked how the jewelry looks on the main image and tried to copy it with pre-made pearls sprayed silver.
 |
| Just spray, no weathering yet |
 |
| Second necklace with color and stones |
 |
| Clay of PVC |
 |
| Worbla and pvc, the master used in the end |
 |
| Baking different pieces |
 |
| Putting the earrings together |
The major problem I had with earrings was that they were heavy. They felt light but as I do not have holes in my ears, I had to use clips and they just tended to drop off over time. I actually planned to clue them to my ears during the competition but did not. And I lost an earring during the stage show :P They were fine all the other time. I managed to catch it so it was hardly noticed but yeah.. having holes has advantages but I wasn't going to do it just for this costume :P
The bracelets. PVC with worbla.
 |
| colored result |
After animatsuri and before eurocosplay, I decided to redo the jewelry. At least part of it. I kept three of the bracelets and redid the second one from the bottom that I felt was the weakest. I also got a really good hint about glading wax for better silver effect from one of the judges. So I got the wax and tried to work with it :S It was a mess. I ruined some of my stones.. I did got slightly better shine than before but not what I hoped for. I think the problem was that I did not had so "smooth" surfaces". Also, I felt after covering the jewelry with gloss or sealing wax, the shine actually dropped. Without it, I could not have left it as it was "leaving silver marks" on everything. My hands were more silverish I think than the poor jewelry, I think.
 |
| Trying to protect the stones from glading wax |
And did I mention how I lost earring on stage on local qualifier? Mm.. I never lost in anywhere else.. expect when I was on stage in Eurocosplay.. during my performance.. and.. when I went on stage to get my price.. like.. it was a curse.. One of them only dropped off on stage :P
Posts:
*Getting started
*Underwear
*Skirt and trousers
*Blouse
*Coat
*Jewelry
*Boots
*Accessories
*At Animatsuri
*At Eurocosplay
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